The Optoma UHZ50 is a 4k DLP laser projector. It's a relatively compact standard throw projector with a 1.3x manual zoom lens and geometry features like vertical lens-shifting and keystone correction. Its laser phosphor light source allows for quieter operation than traditional lamp-based projectors, and you won't have to worry about the laser dimming over time or needing to be replaced. It supports HDR, has a built-in app store, and integrated speakers. It's also quite gaming-friendly, with an 'Enhanced Gaming' mode for an advertised input lag of 16.7ms in 4k at 60Hz or 4ms in 1080p at 240Hz.
Our Verdict
The Optoma UHZ50 is decent for watching movies. It provides a good dark-room viewing experience thanks to an impressive native contrast ratio and sufficient brightness, though it's less suited to rooms with ambient light. It also supports HDR, though it has somewhat limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color gamut used in HDR content. It also doesn't display colors very accurately, and calibration doesn't improve them much.
- Decent brightness that makes for an adequate viewing experience in dark rooms.
- Good contrast makes content pop.
- Mediocre color accuracy out of the box.
- Fairly limited coverage of Rec. 2020 color space.
Changelog
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Updated Mar 02, 2026:
We mentioned the newly reviewed Optoma UHZ36 in the Brightness section of this review.
- Updated Aug 02, 2024: We've converted this review to Test Bench 0.9. We've overhauled our Contrast tests, as we now measure contrast at various average pixel levels (APL). You can see the full changelog here.
- Updated Feb 22, 2024: Review published.
- Updated Feb 20, 2024: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Optoma UHZ50 doesn't have any variants. In some markets, like Taiwan, it's called the UHC50. Though it's only been on the market for a few years, Optoma's website shows that the UHZ50 has been discontinued. There's a newer UHZ66 model with a slightly different design and a higher advertised brightness.
Popular Projector Comparisons
The Optoma UHZ50 is a good projector for its price. It's bright enough to offer a decent home theater viewing experience and offers a gaming mode with low input lag. That said, it has its quirks, like limiting its gaming mode and motion interpolation functionality to specific HDMI ports. For a bit more money, you can get the Epson Home Cinema 5050UB or the BenQ HT4550i, both of which have a significantly brighter image and more accurate colors, although the Epson is less suited to gaming as it doesn't have a no low-latency mode.
See our recommendations for the best projectors for home theater and the best home projectors. If you're looking for something more general, look up our list of the best projectors instead.
The Epson Home Cinema 5050UB is better than the Optoma UHZ50, though they use different light sources. The lamp-based Epson gets significantly brighter and has a longer max throw distance. While the Optoma has a marginally better contrast ratio, the Epson's brighter image and more accurate colors give it a better overall viewing experience, albeit in a much bigger, heavier design.
The BenQ HT4550i is better overall than the Optoma UHZ50. Although its native contrast ratio isn't quite as good, it gets noticeably brighter, making for a more pleasant viewing experience, especially when watching in a room with ambient light. It also has more accurate colors and a wider color gamut for HDR content.
The BenQ X3000i is a better-value option than the Optoma UHZ50. Both projectors support low input lag for gaming, but the BenQ projects a brighter overall image and has significantly better color accuracy at a much lower price point.
We've independently bought and tested over 75 projectors and published detailed results for each, so you can decide which one to buy. These have all been tested under the same standardized methodology, allowing you to compare them side by side. We still have all these projects in our lab, so we can continually go back and compare them to ensure our reviews are still accurate. All our test methodologies are also public on our website, so you can validate the results yourself.
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